Haryana Government has decided to replace the four 110 MW thermal units with a super critical 660 MW thermal unit at Panipat. It was earlier decided to set up of 2 units of 250 /300 MW capacity at Panipat in place of existing four units and now with a Technical Director at the helm of affairs it has been mooted to add a more efficient unit of 660 MW capacities with aims of enhancing energy efficiency and reduce coal consumption.

The new 660 MW unit is proposed to come up within the same
premises by way of phasing out the existing four 110 MW units in next
4 to 5 years. To start with the renovation of unit no. 3 &4 units
has been halted and scrapping of these units is likely to start soon.
The scrapping of unit 1 &2 cannot be taken up immediately as
there are financial liabilities pending due to renovation of units.
The new 660 MW unit is expected to come up by 2018-19.

The coal requirements for the unit have been assessed at 2.85
million tons per annum with 85 % plant load factor. Haryana
Government has taken up the matter with coal ministry for transfer of
existing coal linkage of four units totaling 1.6 million ton per
annum to the new proposed unit. The balance coal requirements will be
met by importing coal and purchasing coal through e--procurement.

In
Focus

Last year Haryana Discoms have asked the HPGCL to scrap the four
units of Panipat thermal plant as these have become
financially unviable. It was claimed that these
units of Panipat thermal plant were commissioned
more than 25 years ago and the cost per unit from
these thermal units is more than Rs.5. Even the present
variable cost varies between Rs. 3.94 to Rs. 4.44 per unit.

It may be mentioned that these four units are not running for the
last one year after Haryana started getting power from Adani's Mundra
units in Gujarat. Haryana has made arrangements to purchase 1424 MW
from Mundra on a long term contract of 25 years at about Rs. 3 per
unit.

HPGCL has been forced to shut down its 8 units for most part of
year to pave the way for power flow from Adani?s Mundra thermal
project.

Even today only three thermal units one at Panipat and two at
Yamuna Nagar are running. The state is facing power shortage of 60
lac units with daily supply of 1250 lac units. The state thermal
units are producing 375 lac units only.

A senior HPGCL engineer said that with the immediate phasing out
of unit 3 & 4 HPGCL middle level engineers fear that one post of
Superintending Engineer and 9 posts of Executive Engineers will be
surrendered and this will block their promotion chances.